Taking a title like that, while actually not doing it is a borderline fraud. If I'll get a resume with "scientist" or "researcher" in the title, the first thing I would look at would be published academic papers. If there are none, I will not consider this resume.
My job evolved to be more of a business-focused role, but my title did not. The intention was never to mislead, and indeed, when asked, I never claimed to be an academic.
> Taking a title like that, while actually not doing it is a borderline fraud
That seems like a strong conclusion to draw. My title now is "Product Architect", but I'm not an architect, nor do I exclusively design products.
A quick skim through Crunchbase yields:
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jeff-hammerbacher (bright guy, not an academic)
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/bram-cohen (not an academic)
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/chris-slowe (not really an academic)
And that's in the first 10 results. "Fraud" seems strong.